FaceFX Commands

Useful Commands

Below is a list of useful commands.  The list is not complete, but the syntax of most commands can be learned by doing an operation in FaceFX Studio then watching the Console Tab for the executed command.  The commands below are not triggered by the GUI, or they have features not easily discovered from the GUI.

• exec
  
• bonepose 
• get and set 
• analyze 
• coordsys 
• fbx 
• render 
• key 
  

Command Interface

FaceFX Studio uses a command system internally to implement undo /redo and to log information about the FaceFX Studio session. Users can take advantage of the command system to perform batch operations. The most recent commands are printed to the Console Tab and an archive of all commands are printed to the FaceFxStudioLog.txt file in the Logs directory of the FaceFX Studio folder in My Documents. Some of the most useful commands are listed above for easy reference.

Automatically Executed Commands

FaceFX will automatically execute commands found in the following files when the appropriate events occur. The Autoexec.fxl, preloadactor.fxl, postloadactor.fxl, presaveactor.fxl. postsaveactor.fxl files must be located in the FaceFX install directory, while the files that use the name of the FXA file must be located in the same directory as the FXA file. The global files in the installation path are executed before the actor-specific files. In Unreal Engine 3, all files should be located in the executable directory.

• Autoexec.fxl – Commands in this file are executed when FaceFX Studio opens.
• preloadactor.fxl – Commands in this file are executed before any actor is loaded.
• postloadactor.fxl – Commands in this file are executed after any actor is loaded.
• presaveactor.fxl – Commands in this file are executed before any actor is saved.
• postsaveactor.fxl – Commands in this file are executed after any actor is saved.
• FileNameOfFXA_PreLoad.fxl – Commands in this file are executed before the specific actor is loaded but after the commands in the preloadactor.fxl file.
• FileNameOfFXA_PostLoad.fxl – Commands in this file are executed after the specific actor is loaded and after the commands in the postloadactor.fxl file.
• FileNameOfFXA_PreSave.fxl – Commands in this file are executed before the specific actor is saved but after the commands in the presaveactor.fxl file.
• FileNameOfFXA_PostSave.fxl – Commands in this file are executed after the specific actor is saved and after the commands in the postsaveactor.fxl file.
• FileNameOfFXA.fxl – For backwards compatibility, this script is searched for and executed if FileNameOfFXA_PostLoad.fxl cannot be found.

Syntax

• Semicolon – Every FaceFX Studio command should end with a semicolon (;).
• Comments – The following characters are used to start a comment line: “//”
• Spaces - Multiple spaces will be reduced to a single space unless the spaces are encapsulated in quotes. no spaces are allowed in between a Flag and the Flag's argument.
• Case sensitive – FaceFX Studio commands are case sensitive.
• Flags – Most commands can accept one or more flags. Flags are preceded by the dash character: “-“. Flags are used to set options in the command or pass variables to the command. Some flags are optional while others are mandatory. The following example of the select command uses three flags: select -type "node" -names "Happy" -nozoom;
• Strings Separator – The pipe character “|” is used to separate strings in commands. Names of nodes, animation curves, and other objects used by FaceFX Studio can not contain the pipe character to avoid complications with the script interface.